Blizzard plans to announce all game systems before the beta goes live. We already know quite a bit, but Bashiok makes it sound like there's still a decent amount of information regarding in-game systems that has not been revealed. Earlier today, Bashiok commented on how the breakpoint "system" is going to work in D3.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Just for those who aren't aware, Diablo II animations were rendered at 25 frames per second. This is important because it meant that events could only occur on those 25 points in every second. When you start getting into the nitty gritty of faster attack and cast rates, 25 ticks per second to shave off time for actions to occur isn't nearly granular enough to account for a direct comparison between point increases and an actual result of removing a full frame. These are called break points. Essentially your attack rate increase points don't mean anything until you get enough to hit the next break point and remove an animation frame, which would actually result in a real effect on your actions.

I'll make two statements on break points:

Break points were an effect of the Diablo II engine, not a gameplay mechanic specifically designed into the game.

Even modern games run at specific tick rates, and Diablo III is no different. I'll only say it's more than 25.

With that information in mind, I asked how this will differ from Diablo II. A different rate for D3 could potentially mean either more ticks to hit the next breakpoint, or less ticks if there are more breakpoints spread throughout. The answer I received was...

Official Blizzard Quote:

It's all dependent on the curve.

Which makes complete sense, though still leaves this mechanic a little bit of a mystery, because we do not know how much weight each item's stat will give, nor do we know what exactly the curve may be. This mechanic will require a bit more math to figure out than D2's system did, but until we get more information on this, the formula will remain unknown.

Aside from some breakpoint information, Bashiok has recently reiterated how runestones (or runes) work. Essentially, each skill can be considered as the "vanilla" or "classic" version of the skill, which also includes at least one (usually two) rune(s) that does/do not change the core mechanic of the skill. However, all other runes will make some pretty big changes to the dynamics of skills. Some may be wondering, how viable could every potential skill/rune combination be?

Official Blizzard Quote:

Every skill has at least one rune that doesn't change the core mechanic of the skill. Usually two. We definitely think the base skills are viable and will be used, but it's going to be a base skill with a cost reduction rune or basic damage increase rune.

It's tough to really argue some of the concerns being made because it comes down to balance and making sure that a skill isn't worthless in its base form with a cost reduction rune, as compared to the same skill with a rune that changes the mechanic entirely. Ideally they'd be balanced in such a way that both could be options for different builds and play styles and one wouldn't become the 'only' way to rune a skill.

Those are the sometimes eternally elusive goals of game balance. Assuming highest rank runes that's ~550 skills, so I don't think anyone is fooling themselves by thinking the game will ever truly hit a perfect balance in every situation (and in some cases it's maybe better it doesn't), but it's something we're going to strive for.

For those who are wondering what that 550 number means on a per class basis, it boils down to: 550 / 5 runes / 5 classes = 22. This means that there is an average of ~22 skills per class. Now, keep in mind that this is just an approximation. I should also note that this does not include the passive skills, as they were moved to the trait system some time ago.

While we're on the subject of game systems and mechanics, Bashiok also discussed how gems will be dropping in the game. For those curious, gems a few levels over level five will be droppable. Anything above this level will need to be crafted, which eventually becomes a hefty number. However, something that I really want to point out is that he mentions a more robust trading system, which may make these high numbers easier to achieve:

Official Blizzard Quote:

But more importantly we expect a more robust trading system will make it much more feasible to sell off a ton of gems, earn that wealth, and then buy back into gems later when you want - and on the buyer side of that, if you have some gems and just need one more to upgrade, it will be quick and easy to go get one for a reasonable price.

A more robust trading system could mean quite a few things, one of which is a possible auction house. The auction house in WoW works great: I can throw stuff up on the AH, go to sleep, and make myself some money while being logged out. As we heard, gold will be the currency in Diablo III, making an auction house even more viable in-game. However, if this were to happen, I am curious to see how it would be implemented. Keep in mind, we are no longer in an MMO, so this is not just a giant world. Each game has it's own instance. Therefore, an auction house would need to be implemented in the Battle.net interface. However, I have no doubts that there will also be a personal trading system (as there was in Diablo II). So those of you that feel intimidated by the auction house concept have little or no cause for concern.

As I am sure that all of you are waiting for that wonderful day when you open up DiabloFans and read "Beta has started", any news of this date is something we would all love to know. Unfortunately, that date is still unknown. However, Bashiok has given just one more insight to when this day may come. A user of on Battle.net asked about the areas that each Act will cover and what more can we look forward to seeing.

Official Blizzard Quote:

You've actually seen some of the first three Acts already, and we probably won't be revealing too much more than what we've already shown. We really want to try to keep as much a surprise for you when you play through the game the first time as possible. We will be announcing all of the game systems though before beta, so there are a few things left as far as reveals go. While beta will obviously be a lot of fun, should you get the chance to get in and help test, it'll only be a small part of the whole game. Some people want to know everything, but we're really trying to preserve the surprise and wonderment (that we hope will come with exploring Diablo III) as much as possible.

This quote actually gives us a lot of information. First, we already know that Act 1 will be in New Tristram and Tristram Cathedral. Numerous videos and pictures have highlighted this area. Act 2 will include a desert type environment with areas like Caldeum and Alcarnus. The only part we know of Act 3 is Bastion's Keep as it is the only area not tied to the first two Acts. So, even with beta's release, we will not being seeing anything more of the areas, especially where Act 4 will take us.

Moving onto the next subject at hand, Bashiok mentioned that all of the game systems will be announced before beta starts. The only system we know we are waiting to hear about is the trading system that we will use in Diablo III. There is also no information out yet about how Diablo III will use Battle.net 2.0 and what features that will bring. Any other systems they have in store for us remain a mystery at this point. The real question is though, how and when will they be sharing these last bits of info before we get into beta? With an unknown amount of information to share, this unfortunately gives us no real time frame on beta's release.

The last part from the quote gives us a little bit of information on what will be included in beta. According to Bashiok, it definitely will not be the entire game, although most of us already suspected that. It seems as though the beta will be limited to some previously seen dungeons and areas from videos and screen shots that they have already released. Perhaps a run through of Act 1 and part of Act 2 with major spoilers being edited out. This could be possible since the three artisans are supposed to be gained through about this same amount of gameplay. However, it won't be until we all have our hands on this game that we find out just how this epic trilogy ends (until the first expansion pack comes out).

With no real information on when the beta starts yet, stay tuned as we will share any and all information that comes out regarding beta. As of right now, the only event we know something will be talked about in regards to beta will be the May 9th conference call where Mike Morhaime promised to talk about it.

UPDATE: I asked Bashiok if they had plans on how and when they are going to announce these remaining systems.

Official Blizzard Quote:

@ScyberDragon Yes. Very specifically.

It appears as though Blizzard knows exactly what they will be doing up until beta and more importantly, when they plan on starting beta.

In a recent interview with Diablo III lead content designer Kevin Martens, AtomicGamer.com went a little farther than the general-purpose game highlights that non-fansites are so ready to post. Yes, it covered all the development bases like the classic isometric view, the scalable system requirements and gameplay complexity, and randomness (word of the week here at DiabloFans), but after all that came perhaps the most interesting and complete topic: questing and quest stories.

Atomic asked what the team believed needed real improvement from Diablo II to Diablo III, and, without hesitation, Martens replied, "The questing and story." Kevin continued:

Official Blizzard Quote:

I think we’ve added way more quests, more variety of quests. We’ve randomized the quests, and have these sort of quests that are self contained. For example, if you enter a dungeon in Diablo III, there might be somebody standing at the entrance, like a treasure hunter, saying, “Hey, I heard stories about the Idol of Rygnar is hidden somewhere in this dungeon. Help me find it and you can share in the reward.” Then you go through the dungeon and protect this guy. Then you’ll find the idol and you’ll get the reward. People will turn on you…you’re never quite sure what is going to happen. We’re adding all those random elements all over the world. There is way more quest content overall than Diablo II, period.

Over five distinct acts, including Lord of Destruction, Diablo II offered only twenty-seven unique quests, some of which were optional and not all of which were that interesting. Most quests consisted of stumbling upon a monster or item or otherwise being debriefed in a long-winded, impersonal dialog with a town NPC. Then out you went, into the wild, and, with relatively minimal effort or brain power, the quest was completed.

Most interesting of note with quests in Diablo III--besides, of course, the obvious randomized quest upgrade--is that NPC's will actually go on adventures with you from time to time and take a hand in the journeys so essential to the gameplay. Mischief, betrayal, and adventure combine to form quests that aren't quite as repetitive and linear as those of Diablo II. But who can tell how effective these quests will really be until release?

Better storytelling.

Last year's Blizzcon gave us just a taste of some of the ways storytelling will be improved from previous games. Drooling as the minutes tick away while you watch dialog scroll by in town isn't the greatest way to spend your time in an action RPG. Story elements--history, character, etc.--are now shown through interaction and events in the dungeons we explore. Fully-voiced lore books collected on the field will play as you continue to explore, and field NPC's will add more to the mix, including the usual dialog, interaction with elements in the levels, themselves, and more.

Unfortunately, if you were reading the interview in the hopes of finding release date information, Blizzard has countered us yet again. However, Martens echoed earlier Blizzard sentiment this year: 2011 is still the plan.

Twitter saw some updates this week clarifying some of the details surrounding PvP arenas. If you happen to be fuzzy on the upcoming arena environments, liquorice wrote an excellent summary of many of its features in Diablo III PvP - Battle Arena Environments. If not, onward to health orbs!

We've seen what health orbs do for players in the PvM context in the years since 2008's announcement, but how do they affect the PvP experience?

Official Blizzard Quote:

Diablo: @Scyberdragon [Health orbs] are on timers right now, which actually makes for interesting gameplay. If they were random you'd probably hover there.

Blizzcon 2010's arena gameplay demo certainly showed us how interestingly health orbs affected choices in the heat of PvP battles. As soon as the red orbs popped up, the choice had to be made: can I make it to the end of the round with half health or should I clear a path through my enemies--and possibly die--to get an orb?

Camping was essentially a non-option, not with the speed at which health was lost and the relatively long (challengingly so!) delay between health orb spawns. Of course, the option was there, and in some cases was the difference between a winning character and a dead one.

But with randomization being so heavily stressed throughout the game, why not set health orbs to random spawns? Bashiok responded:

Official Blizzard Quote:

Diablo: @Scyberdragon Randomness undermines some of the competitive nature of the arenas. You could "get lucky" with health globe spawns and win.

Getting lucky. We could very well sit here for hours posting arguments over whether or not setting them on a fixed timer eliminates the element of luck in even this single regard. What about players not keeping track of health orb spawn rates? What about running in to one by accident, just in the nick of time? What about losing health just as an orb spawns?

Regardless, the fixed timer will likely be but one of the many new components of Diablo III's arenas that define dueling pros and novices. As Bashiok noted, keeping mental notes of the average time between health orb spawns can free players to execute effective offensive tactics, as well as plan when to run to known orb spawning locations. Such knowledge could even be used to predict where low-health players, and thus easy targets, will go when the timer hits zero.

Heyo everyone, here's the fifth episode of our DiabloCast. This week we talked a lot about how the Health System works within the game, as well as some Battle.net discussion. If you missed the fourth episode, you can check it out here. Otherwise, the fifth episode covered the following topics: